by Dan Wolken, USA TODAY Sports

by Dan Wolken, USA TODAY Sports

GREENSBORO, N.C. - For as many times as Florida State's cocoon of assistant athletics directors and media handlers have felt the need to pull Jameis Winston out of the spotlight when publicity has been inconvenient, the reigning Heisman Trophy winner is yet to encounter a moment he can't command.

As he has too often since rising to stardom over the last year, Winston faced a barrage of questions Sunday at the Atlantic Coast Conference's annual media kickoff event about his off-field behavior, including an April citation for shoplifting crab legs from a Tallahassee grocery store. And just as he has following each moment of embarrassment, Winston appeared completely comfortable addressing the issues with his trademark smile, commanding charisma and a promise that he is a better person than the circumstantial concerns hounding him would suggest.

"I'm definitely enjoying this," Winston said. "It gives me a chance to express my feelings and for people to see who I really am."

As he often is in public settings, Winston was ebullient, even playful on Sunday, challenging reporters to a game of tetherball and insisting that he understands his every move is being watched and scrutinized.

He also acknowledged that despite a historic freshman season in which he threw for more than 4,000 yards and 40 touchdowns while leading the Seminoles to an undefeated national title, there are some legitimate mechanical weaknesses he needs to address to become a better passer and NFL prospect.

That innate ability to straddle the line between humility and supreme confidence has always made Winston easy to like, and Sunday was a reminder that when the focus shifts away from off-field controversy, college football has no bigger or more interesting personality.

And unlike his Heisman predecessor Johnny Manziel, who was initially uncomfortable with the crush of attention that followed him, Winston has embraced stardom since he was a teenager.

"I know I'm in the spotlight and I know I've got these guys depending on me, coach (Jimbo) Fisher depending on me and the most important thing I have my family depending on me," Winston said. "That comes from me maturing, seeing the real world, seeing how people have different perspectives about me as a person. I know I have to be able to live up to that hype everywhere I go. I have a certain standard I have to hold myself up to, and if I even go an inch below that standard it's going to be chaos."

The problem, of course, is that Winston has already gone an inch - or more - below that standard on multiple occasions.

Though the Florida state attorney's office determined there was not enough evidence to charge him with a crime, a sexual assault complaint filed in December 2012 resurfaced last fall, bringing uncomfortable questions to light not only about his behavior but how aggressively Florida State and local police pursued an investigation.

There have also been far less serious incidents involving Winston at Florida State, including an accusation by a Burger King employee that he stole soda from the restaurant last July and a BB gun battle near a dorm that prompted questions from the police, according to an Associated Press report.

Those incidents all happened before Winston became a household name, which made it all the more puzzling when he walked out of a Publix grocery store without paying for $32.72 worth of crab legs in April - just a few months after intimate details of his personal life were splashed all over the national news.

"I've fixed that," Winston said, while declining to go into details about the grocery store incident. "I've matured, and I understand what it really takes to be a leader. When you're out there and everyone's saying the spotlight is on you, you have to be very careful with everything you do and I feel like I'm doing a better job of that."

Stealing crab legs made for easy Internet memes, and even Miami's Denzel Perryman joked Sunday that Hurricanes fans would be dressed as crabs when the Seminoles visit on Nov. 15. It's something Winston is unlikely to ever escape.

But the inconvenient truth for the rest of college football is Winston has a great chance to get the last laugh again. Unless something else goes wrong off the field between now and Aug. 30, he'll enter the opener against Oklahoma State as the best returning player on the top-ranked team with a terrific chance to win consecutive national titles.

And if Winston truly has addressed his elongated throwing motion, eliminated off-balance throws and gotten more comfortable checking down to his running backs instead of going for big plays all the time - all things he said he focused on this summer - he could end up as the first repeat Heisman winner since Archie Griffin in 1974-75.

"Right now we can say we're on top, right now we can say we're No. 1 but every team is coming to beat the Florida State Seminoles. We know that," Winston said. "We're not worried about defending the national championship, we're worried about getting another one and that's the most important part, keeping that chip on the shoulder and having the same purpose, same mentality, and getting what we want."â??